1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a storage medium.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, an electronic equipment such as a personal computer or the like has widely spread, whereby a chance to convert a printed material such as a photograph, a document or the like into digital data and use the obtained digital data increases.
According to this, also fear that a paper money, a security, or a specific printed material (image) having copyright is illegally or falsely digitalized or reprinted increases.
Conventionally, there was strong possibility that such the specific image as above is illegally or falsely printed with an electrophotographic copying machine in which a scanner and a printer are unified.
However, in recent years, a function (resolution or the like) of a popular single scanner or printer increases, whereby it is possible to accurately and vividly copy the printed materials by connecting the single scanner, a personal computer and the single printer with others.
Conventionally, when it is intended to prevent the electrophotographic copying machine or printer which performs the printing in the unit of page from illegally or falsely printing the specific image, the illegal or false printing is detected for each of specific colors in the unit of page. Further, since such detection is generally performed on hardware, there is especially no problem for processing speed.
On the other hand, when it is intended to prevent an inkjet printer represented by the popular single printer from illegally or falsely printing the specific image, there is a case where it is more efficient to detect the illegal or false printing in the unit of partial area. Here, it should be noted that the partial area is obtained by dividing one page and called a band.
However, when it is intended to detect the illegal or false printing in the unit of partial area, there is a problem that time to detect the partial area corresponding to a margin is useless.
Further, when the above detection is performed with software such as a printer driver or the like, control for partial omission of a detection process or the like is very important so as not to decrease or lower processing speed.
Further, when it is intended with the software such as the printer driver or the like to detect the illegal or false printing in the unit of page in such the electrophotographic copying machine as described above, since the sum of operations is large, there is a problem that the processing time required to recognize and judge the illegal or false printing becomes remarkably long.
However, when it is intended to reduce the sum of operations required to recognize and judge the illegal or false printing, it becomes difficult to achieve the detection of the illegal or false printing to which strict recognition accuracy is required. Further, it becomes difficult to detect the illegal or false printing from an image which was read after its reading condition (an original placement angle on an original reading board, an original placement position on this board, or the like) was deliberately changed. Conversely, when an image which looks like a paper money (since this image is not the paper money, it can be legally copied) is input, there is some fear that such the input image is erroneously recognized as a copy prohibition image and thus not output normally, whereby a function as an original image processing system is ruined.